Documents reveal compelling case against Rachael DelTondo murder suspect, but charges unlikely

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Who killed Rachel DelTondo? This week will mark 8 years since the young teacher was shot and killed in the driveway of her parents home in Aliquippa. The case has drawn national attention and sparked intrigue as it remains unsolved. A prime suspect has been named, but there has never been an arrest.

[00:00:16]>> Tonight, KDKA lead investigator Andy Sheehan reviews dozens of now unsealed warrants. They reveal a compelling case against Sheldon Jeter, Jr., but prosecutors continue to believe the evidence falls short. And as Andy reports, it's likely charges will never be filed.

[00:00:37]Will Rachel DelTondo's murder be forever unsolved? For years, Sheldon Jeter, Jr., the spurned boyfriend who lied to investigators about his whereabouts that night, has been identified as the prime suspect. But while these now unsealed warrants, reviewed by KDKA, make a strong circumstantial case against him, there was no eyewitness and no murder weapon recovered. Jeter's former attorney says there's never been enough evidence to arrest him and never will be. No gun, no eyewitness, no DNA, no video.

[00:01:13]You know, there's just you need something some of that at least to be able to put the point the finger at the person they think might have committed this crime. Still, the warrants paint a compelling picture of Jeter as an obsessive and jealous stalker. They reveal he wrote a love letter to DelTondo, kept a running written record of wherever she went and whomever she was with, and once showed up outside her house at 2:00 a.m. yelling she was not returning his calls. On the night of the murder, text messages show DelTondo, a friend, and Sheldon's brother went here to Hank's Frozen Custard in New Brighton, and Jeter texting disappointment he had not been invited.

[00:01:53]Is y'all there already? I got left, huh?

[00:01:56]A little while later at 10:30 that night Jeter texted his brother stating that Hanks was closed. This was 15 minutes before DelTondo was shot and killed on her parents driveway. The warrant site geolocation data from Jeter's phone showing he was quote moving towards and in the area of the DelTondo residence when the shooting occurred. But Jeter told investigators he was home at that time. According to the warrants, Jeter told investigators he drove around with friends and then returned to his residence here at 10:00 p.m. and stayed in for the rest of the evening playing the video game Fortnite and then going to bed. But investigators say surveillance cameras found Jeter arriving here at his mother's residence at 11:55 that evening and left a half hour later in a brand new set of clothes. The warrants say earlier in the evening Jeter was wearing a gray shirt but left his mother's place in another pair of pants and a blue or black jacket which he turned over to police in the morning. The warrant states that this is quote not the clothing that Sheldon Jeter Jr. was wearing when he arrived at his mother's residence. Leading investigators to believe he destroyed the clothes he was wearing at the time of the murder.

[00:03:18]>> That's what the police said but I don't know if that's true or not.

[00:03:21]>> Despite the evidence, Jeter's family maintains his innocence saying he did not kill Rachel DelTondo. No, because I know his character. He's not built like that. But in one of his last acts as Beaver County District Attorney, David Lozier, named Jeter as the prime and only suspect but saying the evidence was not enough to make an arrest made an appeal to the public for more telling KDKA two years ago quote, I can't put him in the driveway beyond a reasonable doubt. Somebody out there knows something. Someone knows something to affirm what happened, but apparently no one has come forward. The current District Attorney Nate Bible wouldn't return phone calls, but he has told several people, including the Deltandos, he does not have enough evidence to charge anyone in this murder and the case has gone cold. It's my understanding that District Attorney Bible is not going to pursue charges at this time or maybe at any time against Shelton. Rachel's parents, Joe and Lisa Deltando, say they do not expect charges to be filed, but no longer wish to talk with reporters.

[00:04:31]They said they are angry at the media for injuring Rachel's reputation. Lisa Deltando telling me on the phone, quote, "My daughter is dead. Nothing is going to change that. Leave her alone to rest in peace." Cheater, meanwhile, is in prison, convicted in another homicide, the killing of Tyreek Pugh. The lawyers in that case have asked for a new trial.

[00:04:54]If that appeal is not successful, he will remain behind bars for a long time, but not for the Deltando murder. And so it appears that Bible will not be filing charges during his tenure as DA, nor will anyone else, and the Deltando murder will languish in cold case files into the foreseeable future.

[00:05:17]Reporting at the Beaver County Courthouse, Andy Sheehan, KDKA TV News.